Tools may serve more than one purpose.
For example, supervisory powers can be used to address risks which have materialised
or to assist in preventing risks from escalating. In the first instance they
are remedial; in the second, preventative.

Some of these tools, for example
the use of public statements to deliver messages to firms or consumers of financial services, do not involve
the FCA in direct oversight
of the business of firms. In
contrast, other tools do involve a direct relationship with firms.
The FCA also has powers to
act on its own initiative to impose or vary individual requirements on
a firm (see SUP 7) and to ban or impose requirements in relation to
specific financial promotions. The FCA may
also use its general rule-making powers to ban or impose requirements in relation
to specific products, types of products or practices associated with a particular
product or type of product. The use of the FCA's tools
in its oversight of market practices, in ensuring the protection of client
assets and for prudential supervision of FCA-only firms, will also contribute to the integrity
and orderly operation of the financial markets.